Naked Mole Rat Genome May Hold Key to Long Life

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The newly deciphered genome of the hairless,
underground-dwelling, long-lived and cancer-resistant naked mole
rat could help researchers unravel the creature's secrets, and
may help improve human health along the way.

"They are very odd, they are really freaky and they have a lot of
really interesting specializations," study researcher and naked
mole rat enthusiast Thomas Park, of the University of
Illinois at Chicago, told LiveScience. "We are working to
understand how they come to have these very interesting
characteristics. Having the genome gives us a whole new armory of
ways in which we can approach this."

The genome could hold the clues to deciphering the naked mole
rat's unique life traits, behaviors and social characteristics.
Using this information, scientists can learn more about evolution
and could even help design better treatments for human disease,
such as stroke and cancer, or even possibly
find the fountain of youth.

A "very special" mammal

Some find it hideous while others find it adorable, but anyway
you cut it, the naked mole rat is a quirky creature. The small
sausage-shaped rodent lives in underground burrows with up to 100
members with incredibly low oxygen levels. [ 10
Amazing Things You Didn't Know About Animals ]

The naked mole rat is the only cold-blooded mammal, it is
hairless, has horrible eyesight, and is even "cancer-resistant,"
even though it lives into its 30s (about 10 times longer than
other similarly sized rodents). They are even
immune to the pain of irritation caused by acids and spicy
foods.

The naked mole rat is also the only mammal that lives in a
"eusocial" society, similar to that of bees. Only a few of the
mole rats get to breed with one queen, while the rest gather food
and maintain the nest.

The international team used a method called shotgun sequencing to
read the genome of a lab-raised male naked mole rat. They read
long strings of chemical bases that the DNA is made of, these
bases are like letters that make up the words and sentences that
define our genetic code. the researchers thenlined them up to
find the where they overlapped, creating longer strings until
they covered the full genome. They did this several times to
double check for any misread pairs.

After getting a complete genome, the researchers compared it with
the genomes of humans and mice. They looked for any significantly
different genes. Changes in these genes could inform why some
mammals live longer or are
resistant to diseases.

Vera Gorbunova, a researcher from the University of Rochester in
New York who wasn't involved in the study, is excited about the
possibilities. "Having the genome sequence is a starting point.
Now with this tool in hand, a lot more analysis needs to be done
(and will be possible to do) to understand the naked mole rat
longevity and cancer resistance," she said in an email to
LiveScience. "These unique mechanisms could be applied for cancer
prevention and life-span extension in humans."

Freakish findings

The researchers found that the naked mole rat had turned off
several genes related to vision since they live in the dark. They
also saw a mutation in the gene dubbed "hairless," previously
seen to cause baldness in mice and humans, which could explain
how they lost their fur.

While a quick cursory look at the genome sequencing is already
shedding light on changes that may lead to the naked mole rat's
exquisite uniqueness, the information is also useful for human
health. Stroke and heart attack deprive parts of the body from
oxygen. Discovering how the mole rats survive in their low-oxygen
burrows can help scientists design treatments to improve
outcomes.

By comparing this genome with those of other mole rats, including
solitary ones, scientists could also tease out how the
animal's genes influence their behaviors, Chris Faulkes, a
naked mole rat researcher at the Queen Mary University of London,
who wasn't involved in the study, told LiveScience.

Sequence for all

"A lot of people will use the information way beyond those who
are mole rat fanatics like me; looking at these extreme animals
can tell you a lot about more usual species," Faulkes said. "You
can apply it to a much broader sphere of things." [ Extreme
Life on Earth: 8 Bizarre Creatures ]

Because the researchers sequenced the whole genome and will make
it freely available online, diverse groups that study specific
genes involved in cancer and longevity can look up those genes
and determine how they may be different in the naked mole rat.

"It isvery basic science," Park said. "But it can be a very
useful tool as it gets into the hands of scientists worldwide."

The study was published online Wednesday (Oct. 12) in the journal
Nature.

You can follow LiveScience staff writer Jennifer Welsh on
Twitter @microbelover.
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